NICE Electric Car Company: Is it a Car, is it a Van, is it a Vectrix?
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 03.30.07
We briefly mentioned NICE electric car company in our post on the London Motor Show here. It looks like they are shaping up to be a serious competitor to companies like GoinGreen in the expanding electric car market in London. Not only are they now selling the Mega City electric city car, and the Multi Truck II, a delivery van designed for London businesses, they are now also the London dealer for the much awaited Vectrix – a high performance electric scooter which our correspondents have previously drooled over here and here. We are guessing this is a pretty new arrangement, as no prices for the Vectrix are up on the NICE site yet, but they are unlikely to be cheap.
It’s, err, nice to also see NICE thinking about how their product will be used by the consumer. They have set up some very sensible partnerships with other green companies to encourage wider lifestyle changes, and make NICE driving even greener. For example, they have teamed up with Street Car to provide a car sharing membership package for NICE owners when they need to drive on longer journeys, and with Ecotricity to encourage buyers to switch their electricity supply to renewables. Overall, NICE represents a very impressive line up of products and services for greener mobility from the new kids on the block. Let’s just hope that the electic car boom takes off elsewhere too as we leave the fossil fuel era behind.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- SF Bay Area Will be Electric Vehicle Capital of US: Better Place, Coulomb Technologies Expanding EV Infrastructure
- Michelin Unveils Active Wheel in Affordable Electric Car
- $19,000 Electric Car Coming to US in May 2009: Introducing the Wheego Whip
- GreenBuild: Charge Your Electric Car in Ten Minutes
EV DIARY - Part Two- WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR COTTAGE INDUSTRY?
Everything here is just my opinion, my two cents worth, and my opinion could be wrong, too.
Did you see the movie, "Who Killed The Electric Car?" and wondered why the dozens of small electric car makers never became more successful? In fact, almost all of them bit the dust, or went belly-up! The notable exceptions include CANEV in Vancouver Island, probably because most of his business is for airport utility trucks, not cars. The other notable exception is AC Propulsion in California.
Here's the bottom line: Electric cars cost 2X-10X more to operate, per mile, than a Toyota Corolla. (One exception is our electric pickup truck, which runs on nearly-free Revived Batteries.) Why? Batteries have a much-shorter-than-expected life in EV's, unless you have a work-around to prevent its early death. Early battery death can be as short as a several hundred miles. A new lead acid battery pack for a pickup truck would cost $3,500 or so. A new lithium battery pack for a pickup truck would cost $40,000 or so. Does this explain why only Tom Hanks bought the $90,000 eBox electric car?
So, why do lead acid batteries cost more than gas, you ask? In the words of some old-timers in EV's, "Batteries never die, they are murdered."
What is the weapon used to kill batteries, you ask? Its the battery charger, in my opinion. From what we could see in our electric pickup, the early death of batteries was caused by the Zivan battery charger -- the brand that is used by the vast majority of electric vehicles. We also observed that our Zivan NG3 charger's indicator lights indicated that the battery still needed charging, even though our multimeter indicated that the battery was already fully-charged and in the danger zone. So, we pulled the plug, even though the Zivan erroneously indicated that the batteries were less than 80% charged. Later, at least two batteries were damaged by the Zivan charger, imho.
As part of our review of battery devices, we tried battery voltage limiters ("voltage clampers") made by David Kronstein, a member of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association ("VEVA") in BC. We asked David to limit the battery voltage to a particular voltage. David's voltage clampers worked perfectly on our test bench. However, on our pickup truck, the Zivan battery charger overran the programmed limits in David's devices, unless we installed two clamper per battery.
This is today's entry for my EV Diary. What do you think? Have we found What Killed The Electric Vehicle Cottage Industry, or not?
Rob Matthies
I am interested in small service vehicles or pickups that are electric and able to be licenced in Calif. Where do I look. I see lots of prototypes but nothing available.
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Author's comment:
Have you tried Phoenix Motorcars?
I would love an electric car but I drive 45 miles to work on a highway that is posted at 70mph. Is there any car out there that I should be looking at?
I would like to be your agent to Sri Lanka.
There is a mass potential market for this product since all are looking for Economical Vehicles.
Thank you
Dhanesh
Get national coverage for your cars, and do not live solely by the internet. Your business might pick up. It is a solution for the energy crisis.
1. Located in the United states.
2.Give up the dependancy on foriegn gas.
3. Make the people that have a prblem with offshore drilling, happy. There is no need for drilling, with electric cars.